You're listening to LCC alumni stories, a show dedicated to highlighting the amazing alumni of Lansing Community College. I'm Steve Robinson, President of LCC. And on each episode I have the awesome privilege of getting to know one of our many inspiring alum's and hearing about their experiences at, and since leaving LCC, LCC alumni community is expansive and far-reaching. They're incredibly diverse group of people representative of all walks of life, working in hundreds of industries across the country. Lcc alumni stories shines a bright light on alumni who make a positive contribution to their community. And showcases those who have overcome obstacles and barriers to achieve academic and personal success. These are their dynamic stories. My guest today is Siso Dhladhla and he is a fairly recent alum of LCC from 2014. Siso is a marketing and design specialist at downtown Lansing incorporated Siso it's so great to have you as one of the first guests on alumni stories. Yes, I'm excited to be here two, is actually my favorite number, so it's good. Good. Siso two is a good number and you know, we met talking outside on the LCC campus. Tell me a little bit about your time here and what you studied. So I was studying photographic imaging. I did not finish my certification or but I still greatly appreciated my time on campus. I move back from Chicago and about 2013, and I was working, doing creative projects on my own, but I really wanted to increase my knowledge and understanding of photography. I had positive recommendations from one of my favorite photographers at the time, shadow to Aaron Bell, also known as o' boogie, really, really great photography o' boogie, what kinda stuff does this photographer? He does a lot of portraiture lifestyle. And it just was really fascinating to me. But when I learned about his understanding of optics and how he could technically break down a camera to complement his natural ability to take a good photo. I really, I really wanted to be part of the program. His schooling actually got him a job in an eye clinic because he had an understanding of how the eye worked in that's directed to his understanding of optics based from the class. So that's fantastic. We can probably put a link to that work in the show notes for the podcast. So you picked up some, I'm guessing, great and valuable skills when you are here in photography and imaging, what kind of things that you learn that you've been able to apply outside of LCC? Well, really it wasn't until I took that class or those classes that I was able to begin shooting in manual mode. And just a disclaimer of photos. A photo, you can take a great photo on any mode, on any piece of technology. Doesn't matter. matter. That being said, there is a certain sense of accomplishment that comes from being able to. Break down the camera before the shoot, and then get the image that you see in your mind by dialing the knobs on your own. It's just there's this technical proficiency and and understanding and accomplishment that comes from that. So before I started taking those classes, I wasn't thinking about ISO, wasn't thinking about aperture, wasn't thinking about any of the many dials on the camera. I was just trusting it to make decisions for me. So it was very empowering. Well, I know exactly what you're talking about to me. It's like knowing how to drive a manual transmission and a car, right? Exactly. And you know it without going off on a long tangent, I had another podcast that's called teachable moment. And one of the episodes was one of our photography faculty at my previous college explaining how manual mode works, right? You really do need to know the ins and outs of how those images get made. So that's cool. So you learn that in our program and that happens a lot of students pick up transferable important skills and they move them out. And what did you do with that ability to really break down a camera and build an image with all those technical...